The complete transcription from the interviews 1962-1982 can be found on DBNL
Ten huize van … is a Flemish talk show that first appeared on TV1 (Eén) in 1957.
Each episode, presenter Joos Florquin visited a Famous Fleming or Famous Dutchman and interviewed him in his own home. For three days he installed himself in the home of the person in question, while his camera crew shot footage. Most of the interviewees were from the political or cultural world. The first guest was Gerard Walschap. More than 250 followed. The interviews centered on the interviewees. They were able to talk freely and were only in the picture themselves. In other words, true oral history.
Over the decades, Florquin interviewed an impressive number of people. The interviews were written down afterwards, compiled and published in a series of books. When Florquin died in 1978, the program was also stopped for a long time.
Only in the 1990s did new episodes appear around “At the home of”, this time with Edward De Maesschalck as interviewer (34 episodes). From 2003 Frieda Van Wijck took over the presentation.
An overview of many of the interviewed:
Naam | Uitzending | Boekdeel |
Aafjes Bertus | 1969 | 7 |
Alfrink Bernardus J. | 1971 | 9 |
Aubroeck Karel | 1958 | 2 |
Avermaete Roger | 1962 | |
Baekelmans Lode † | 1963 | 3 |
Baie Eugène † | 1961 | 10 |
Baksteen Dirk † | 1963 | 3 |
Baksteen Gerard † | 1963 | 3 |
Baur Frank † | 1960 | 16 |
Boon Constant | 1977 | 17 |
Boon Louis-Paul (2) † | 1971 | 8 |
Bosmans Phil | 1978 | 15 |
Bovy Vina | 1977 | 18 |
Brachin Pierre | 1967 | 8 |
Broekx P. † | 1965 | 16 |
Brugmans Henk | 1962 | 18 |
Brulez Raymond † | 1959 | 1 |
Burssens Amaat | 1962 | |
Cardijn Jozef † | 1962 | 3 |
Carmiggelt Simon (2) | 1972 | 9 |
Caspeele Hendrik | 1973 | |
Claes Ernest † | 1958 | 1 |
Collaer Paul | 1961 | |
Collin Fernand | 1964 | 3 |
Contrijn Jef | 1974 | |
Cool August | 1968 | 7 |
Coppé Albert (2) | 1973 | 10 |
Cornelis Hendrik | 1971 | |
Cox Jan † | 1976 | 17 |
Craeybeckx Lode † | 1966 | 4 |
Daan Lea | 1969 | |
Daisne Johan † | 1972 | 10 |
Darciel Elsa | 1975 | |
De Bock Eugène † | 1962 | 16 |
De Boeck Felix | 1958 | |
De Boeck Felix | 1967 | 1 |
De Clerck Oscar † | 1960 | |
Declerck Richard | 1977 | 17 |
De Coen Jeanne † | 1961 | |
De Cuyper Floris † | 1959 | |
De Hartog Jan | 1965 | 4 |
De Jong Marinus | 1959 | 18 |
De Keyser Paul † | 1961 | |
De Leebeeck Maria | 1977 | |
Delwaide Leo † | 1969 | 8 |
De Man Yvonne † | 1965 | 4 |
De Mayer Aloïs † | 1963 | |
Demedts André | 1968 | 6 |
De Meester Johan | 1965 | |
De Meester Louis | 1969 | 16 |
De Meyer Willem | 1964 | 14 |
De Muynck Gust | 1965 | 4 |
Den Doolaard A. (2) | 1971 | 9 |
Denys Willem (2) | 1978 | 15 |
De Pillecyn Filip † | 1959 | 1 |
De Raeymaeker Louis † | 1966 | 17 |
De Ridder André † | 1961 | 1 |
De Schryver August | 1968 | 7 |
De Smedt Emiel J. | 1977 | 15 |
De Smet Léon † | 1961 | 2 |
De Spot Jan † | 1977 | 16 |
De Sutter Ignace | 1977 | 14 |
De Sutter Jules † | 1967 | 15 |
De Troyer Prosper † | 1958 | 1 |
De Vocht Lodewijk † | 1958 | 13 |
De Vree Paul | 1972 | 13 |
De Waele Fernand J.M. † | 1966 | |
De Wit Gaspar † | 1961 | |
Diels Herman | 1968 | |
Diels Joris | 1968 | 6 |
Dille Denijs (2) | 1975 | 13 |
Dumon André † | 1963 | |
Elaut Leon † | 1965 | 4 |
Elsing Johan-Mark | 1977 | 15 |
Elström Harry | 1960 | |
Eyskens Gaston (2) | 1974 | 11 |
Fayat Hendrik | 1976 | 15 |
Gerlo Aloïs | 1973 | 13 |
Gevers Marie † | 1963 | 17 |
Geyl Pieter † | 1961 | 2 |
Gheyselinck Roger † | 1970 | |
Gijsen Marnix | 1959 | 1 |
Gijsen Marnix | 1974 | 12 |
Gilliams Maurice | 1968 | 5 |
Goris René | 1975 | 12 |
Grammens Flor | 1972 | 9 |
Gronon Rose † | 1969 | 6 |
Gunzburg Nico | 1967 | 9 |
Haanstra Bert | 1976 | 13 |
Haasse Hella (2) | 1975 | 12 |
Haesaerts Paul † | 1966 | 17 |
Hagedoorn Georgette (2) | 1975 | 13 |
Helman Albert | 1976 | 14 |
Herberigs Robert † | 1960 | |
Herckenrath Antoon † | 1974 | 12 |
Herreman Raymond † | 1960 | 2 |
Heymans Corneel † | 1963 | 3 |
Hoste Marcel A.J. † | 1974 | 18 |
Hullebroeck Emiel † | 1958 | 1 |
Indestege Luc † | 1965 | 5 |
Jacquemyns Pol † | 1967 | 16 |
Janssens Magda † | 1971 | 10 |
Jespers Floris † | 1959 | 5 |
Jespers Oscar † | 1958 | 5 |
Jonckheere Karel | 1968 | 5 |
Kimpe Reimond † | 1964 | 3 |
Knuvelder Gerard | 1974 | 14 |
Kuypers Julien † | 1962 | 5 |
Lamberty Max † | 1960 | 5 |
Lampo Hubert (2) | 1973 | 10 |
Langui Emile † | 1969 | 6 |
Lauwereys Modest † | 1962 | |
Leemans Victor † | 1967 | 7 |
Leys Fanny | 1960 | 5 |
Liebaers Herman | 1973 | |
Luns J.M.A.H. | 1968 | 6 |
Maes Jef | 1975 | 18 |
Magits Leo | 1966 | 8 |
Malfait Hubert † | 1968 | 16 |
Manteau Angèle | 1967 | 5 |
Marceau Félicien | 1976 | |
Major Louis | 1967 | 7 |
Martens Adriaan † | 1963 | 3 |
Martens Gaston † | 1958 | 2 |
Masereel Frans † | 1961 | 1 |
Minnaert Marcel † | 1970 | 7 |
Minne Joris | 1958 | |
Minne Joris | 1967 | 1 |
Minne Richard † | 1962 | 1 |
Moens Wies | 1975 | 12 |
Mussche Achiel † | 1961 | 2 |
Naessens Maurits | 1961 | 6 |
Nees Staf † | 1959 | 2 |
Opsomer Isidoor † | 1957 | |
Paerels Willem † | 1959 | |
Peeters Flor | 1958 | 1 |
Peeters Karel C. † | 1970 | 11 |
Pelemans Willem | 1962 | 18 |
Philips Luc | 1971 | 9 |
Picard Leo † | 1963 | 17 |
Pieck Anton | 1973 | 11 |
Poels Albert | 1959 | 1 |
Pols André M. † | 1964 | |
Poot Marcel | 1972 | 17 |
Preud’homme Arm. | 1970 | 8 |
Renard Raf | 1977 | |
Rens Jef | 1969 | 6 |
Roelants Maurice † | 1959 | 2 |
Romein-Verschoor Annie † | 1974 | 11 |
Ruyslinck Ward (2) | 1975 | 12 |
Ryelandt Joseph † | 1959 | 10 |
Sabbe Etienne † | 1968 | |
Saverys Albert † | 1958 | 1 |
Schillebeeckx Edward (2) | 1976 | 13 |
Schmidt Annie M.G. (2) | 1974 | 11 |
Schmook Ger | 1963 | 18 |
Segers Paul W. | 1966 | 17 |
Servaes Albert † | 1966 | 3 |
Servranckx Victor † | 1961 | 5 |
Seuphor Michel | 1965 | 4 |
Slabbinck Rik | 1971 | 10 |
Stynen Léon | 1972 | 18 |
Stracke E.P. Desiderius † | 1966 | 4 |
Struye Paul † | 1971 | 8 |
Stuiveling Garmt (2) | 1970 | 8 |
Suenens Leo | 1970 | 8 |
Termote Albert † | 1970 | |
Terruwe Anna A.A. | 1972 | 10 |
Thiel Urbain † | 1967 | |
Thuysbaert Prosper † | 1962 | |
Tinbergen Jan | 1976 | 13 |
Torfs Jos | 1978 | |
Vaerten Jan † | 1974 | 12 |
Van Acker Achiel † | 1964 | 3 |
Van Aken Piet (2) | 1978 | 15 |
Vanaudenhove Omer | 1977 | 14 |
Vanbeselaere Walth. | 1970 | 18 |
Van Cauwelaert Emiel | 1976 | 17 |
Van Cauwelaert Frans † | 1960 | 2 |
Vandekerckhove Michiel | 1973 | 18 |
Van den Abeele Hugo † | 1967 | |
Vandendriessche Ern. | 1969 | |
Vandeputte Robert | 1971 | 16 |
Van der Essen Leo † | 1960 | |
(Van der Goes Hugo) | 1968 | |
Vanderlick Armand | 1969 | 7 |
Van der Meer Frits | 1973 | 11 |
Van der Meer de Walcheren Pieter † | 1966 | 4 |
Vandermeulen Lambertus † | 1974 | 12 |
Van der Mueren Floris † | 1960 | |
Van der Plaetse Antoon † | 1968 | |
Vanderpoorten Herman | 1978 | 15 |
Vandersteen Willy | 1976 | 13 |
Van de Velde Anton | 1964 | |
Van de Voorde Urbain † | 1964 | 7 |
Van Duinkerken Anton † | 1960 | 1 |
Van Eynde Jos | 1975 | 14 |
Van Hemeldonck Em. † | 1958 | 1 |
Van Hool Bernard † | 1970 | |
Van Hulse Camil | 1967 | |
Van Isacker Karel | 1977 | 14 |
Van Istendael August | 1975 | 16 |
Van Oorschot Geert (2) | 1977 | |
Van Overstraeten Jozef | 1966 | 5 |
Van Overstraeten War | 1960 | 10 |
Van Oye Paul † | 1965 | |
Van Reeth Flor † | 1959 | 14 |
Vansina Dirk † | 1965 | 4 |
Van Straaten Werenfried | 1972 | 12 |
Van Vlaenderen Michel † | 1964 | 3 |
Van Waeyenbergh Honoré † | 1961 | 2 |
Van Werveke Hans † | 1969 | 6 |
Van Wilderode Anton | 1976 | 14 |
Vercammen Jan | 1973 | 11 |
Veremans Renaat † | 1959 | 2 |
(Verlooy Jan Baptist) | 1973 | |
Victor René | 1964 | 17 |
Vinck Joseph † | 1970 | 18 |
Vranckx Alfons † | 1973 | 16 |
Walschap Gerard | 1957 | 1 |
Wasserman Ida † | 1968 | 6 |
Westerlinck Albert | – | 15 |
Wijnants Ernest † | 1960 | |
Wildiers Max | 1969 | 7 |
Yoors Eugène † | 1959 | 1 |
The episodes can be viewed in the VRT archive.
Belga Sport is a Flemish documentary television series depicting turning points in Belgian sports history. The program, made by Woestijnvis and shown on the Flemish public broadcaster Canvas, digs up fragments from the VRT sports archives and sheds new light on “known” facts through testimonies. The subtitle therefore reads Old sports stories in a new light. The first series was broadcast in the spring of 2007. A new series was recently released in 2024. In June 2008, Belga Sport was awarded the Prize of Television Criticism. And in early 2011, the program received a nomination from the Flemish Television Stars in the category “Best Information Program.
There is also a podcast with the creators of Belga Sport. Which can be found here.
Other seasons can be found in the VRT archives
Title: Belpop: de eerste vijftig jaar
Author: Jan Delvaux
Publisher: Borgerhoff & Lamberigts, Ghent, 2011
ISBN: 9789089312495
Belpop is a TV program about the Belgian pop scene on Canvas. It refers to belpop, a collective term for music by Belgian groups. Since 2008, each episode deals with one artist, sometimes several artists get the floor. They talk about the past of belpop. Between 2008 and 2020, Luc Janssen did the interviews and voice-over. As of 2023, Bent van Looy took over this task. Also see a review of this last season here.
Jan Delvaux, contributor to the program, also published a book in 2011 entitled Belpop: de eerste vijftig jaar, in which he describes the history of Belgian pop music, from Kili Watch of The Cousins to the present.
Also see the following video on belgian music history: Belpop Bonanza #1000 – Een duik in 40 jaar AB geschiedenis
Xavier Taveirne talks to the first generations of men who dared to come out as gay in Flanders. It is a moving and often disconcerting series with stories of love, struggle and pain, and the taboo of being gay in less tolerant times.
In three episodes, older gay men tell their stories uncensored. Important stories and often conversations in which they do not shy away from thorny current issues.
Three-part documentary “Voor de mannen”
Episode 1: 1940-1970
The first episode features gay men growing up in post-war Catholic Flanders. Sex was taboo for everyone, and if homosexuality was mentioned at all, people talked about ‘jeanets’. The church was also very repressive.
Xavier sought out Paul Rademaekers, now 98, who still gets angry when he thinks back to those times: “I have always said: homosexuality is not a sexual problem, but a social problem. I started with difficult cards. But even with difficult cards, you have to try to make as many assets as possible. My assets were that I always stood up for others, especially gay people.”
The first turning point came only in 1970, when Will Ferdy became the first well-known Fleming to speak on television about his “being different”. It was a shock for Flanders. Will received many negative reactions, but his courageous testimony did mark the very beginning of gay emancipation.
Episode 2: 1970-1980
The wild 1970s were also the years of sexual liberation and social change for the gay community.
Although gays – especially in rural areas – still often continued to lead a hidden life, thriving subcultures emerged in the cities with gay bars and nightclubs where anything was possible. A debauched life that everyone today thinks back to with nostalgia.
Xavier also talks to Chille De Man and Guido Totté. Guido first took to the streets with the Trotskyist Rooie Vlinder to enforce equal rights for gays and straights. An early precursor to Pride, which Chille later organised for the first time in Brussels.
Episode 3: 1980-1995
For the gay community, the 1980s were overshadowed by the rise of a new, deadly disease: AIDS.
In this episode, gay men recount the havoc wreaked by the AIDS virus. It took years before the first medication was available, and in that time many gay men became infected. Only a few of them are still alive today. One of them is Patrick Reyntiens. Xavier talks to him about those black years, when all gay people were once again fingered. “AIDS was God’s punishment for the homosexuals’ rampant behaviour”, and AIDS patients were the new plague sufferers.
Xavier also talks to Rob Scheers, who was active in the first prevention campaigns, yet later became infected himself through risky behaviour.
In 1982, the then BRT (now VRT) broadcast Maurice De Wilde’s legendary documentary series De Nieuwe Orde. About collaboration with the German occupiers during World War II.
This was followed by other series: about the resistance, the Eastern Front, punishment… For these documentaries, Maurice De Wilde and his collaborators interviewed more than 300 people. Among them well-known collaborators such as Jef Vande Wiele, leader of DeVlag, and Rex leader Léon Degrelle. People from the resistance, ministers, lawyers and professors were also interviewed by Maurice De Wilde in his characteristic style.
Documentaries by Maurice De Wilde
The New Order – 19 episodes
The Suspects – 4 episodes
The Time of Retaliation – 8 episodes
The Eastern Frontiers – 7 episodes
The Repression – 5 episodes
The Collaboration – 10 episodes
The Youth Collaboration – 4 episodes
‘The Very Last Witnesses’ is an interview project in which 100 very elderly Flemings testify on camera about the First World War.
Together, their stories form the big story of the war in Flanders, in all its facets. The war was profound, not only for those who fought and lived at the front.
All these witnesses were children during the war. Some had to flee headlong to the Netherlands, England or France, others lived under the terror of the occupying forces. Some suffered hunger and missed their fathers who fought at the front or had been taken to Germany as prisoners of war….
De allerlaatste getuigen van WO I
Author: Philip Vanoutrive
Publisher: Lannoo, 2018
ISBN: 9789401456210
Based on this, Philip Vanoutrive published the book “The very last witnesses of WW1”. The stories of 43 witnesses traverse 23 thematic chapters in which their war memories are each interwoven with historical background information. Vividly, they recount their experiences and adventures. Repulsive anecdotes about death and destruction but also touching or funny stories they can still vividly recall. For some, it was a ‘nice and fun’ time – something happened for once! For the other, childhood dreams exploded like an exploding grenade.
The struggle for equal status and representation of women and men in Flanders is more than a century old. Great strides have been made, but we are not there yet. Using testimonies and archive footage, the four-part series ‘We, women’ outlines the evolution of the position of women in our society, both privately and in public life.
How have wrong expectations, upbringing, glass ceilings, discrimination, pressure, prejudice or other obstacles made it difficult for women to develop to their full potential in recent decades? For example, in the areas of upbringing, education, marriage, family, sexuality, work and politics. How have they dealt with this? What have action groups, politicians and individual women been able to change? And how do women experience all these obstacles today?
In ‘We, women’, women of all ages and walks of life tell their stories, together with politicians, figureheads of the women’s movement and former ‘Dolle Mina’s’. Their testimonies are illustrated with punishing archive footage. These are at times disconcerting and at other times funny stories about being brought up as a housekeeper, fighting to be allowed to study, the conquest of men’s professions, sexual taboos and men who still think they know better. The four episodes focus successively on sexuality, marriage and family, professional life and politics.
We, women’ uses the tried and tested formula of Children of…: the entire historical and current story is told by committed witnesses who look the viewer straight in the eye.
A surprising look behind the scenes of the struggle for women’s rights. Often stunning archive material that not least puts the sexism of our own public broadcaster on display. And eighteen women who draw you into their stories and leave you with deep respect.
Videos can be viewed if you are logged in and have confirmed your Belgian residence or identity
S1 | Afl.1
In charge of your own body
Battle for sexual freedom, from taboo on monthlies to Metoo
S1 | Afl.2
Women must know their place
For decades, women have been brought up to be obedient to men.
S1 | Afl.3
Welcome to the world of men
For a long time, education prepared girls mainly for the household.
S1 | Afl.4
Women in power
Women organised, resisted and conquered their place
Below is an overview of the 18 witnesses – or participants in Canvas’ documentary We, Women – arranged by age.
In Coal Pits, a number of carefully selected ex-miners dig deep into their memories, where they have stored a wealth of colourful stories about the mine. In juicy and plastic fashion, they tell moving, funny and exciting anecdotes about the dangerous and unhealthy work ‘in the pit’, about daily life in the cités, about the struggle for social rights, the arrival of the ‘guest workers’ and about the rise and fall of heavy industry in Limburg.
The series mainly lets workers have their say: men (and women) who grew up in poverty, usually had not studied and hoped for a better future by working in the pit.
Their stories form the basis of the series and are complemented by historical film material from various archives and atmospheric images of the still-existing industrial architecture and the original miners’ committees of the time.
The series is timely. Not only because it is 30 years since the last Limburg coal mine, that of Heusden-Zolder, was closed. But also because the generation that can still tell the story of the mines from their own experience is disappearing. This is shown, among other things, by the unfortunate fact that four of the 13 key witnesses have died since the filming.
Most of the witnesses are in their 70s and 80s, some even well into their 90s. These are the names:
Agostino Mele – 83 years old
Franco Mirisola – 69 years old
Ismail Erdogdu – 72 years old
Jan Kocur (+) – 79 years
Jean De Schutter – 76 years
Jean Peeters – 69 years
Louis Snoeks (+) – 91 years
Mai Van Houdt – 82 years
Mil Coenen – 63 years
Rocco Berterame (+) – 95 years
Sandrettin Koçak – 80 years
Sophie Gruszowski – 76 years
Stephan Bratus (+) – 96 years
The episodes
Three episodes cover the many facets of underground life, a fourth deals with life above ground and the fifth outlines the story of the closure of the mines.
Episode 1 – Underground
In the first episode, the coal miners take us into the mysterious world underground. In smells and colours, they recount their work and habits among the stones and dust.
Episode 2 – On life and death
In the second episode, the coal pits highlight the dangers of working in the mines. They reminisce about exciting moments and tricky situations that fortunately usually ended well for them. Although that was not the case for everyone.
Episode 3 – The promised land
There was a shortage of hands in the mines. Workers were therefore recruited from other countries. This third episode tells about the experiences of the newcomers in our country and sketches the multicoloured camaraderie underground.
Episode 4 – The cité
In the fourth episode, the coal pits take us to the cité. After all, the mine was much more than the dark corridors underground. Family life above ground was also completely controlled and organised by the mine, in districts and neighbourhoods where the miners lived together.
Episode 5 – The closure
The final episode looks back at the closure of the mines in Limburg. The coal miners recall the actions and strikes they undertook and outline the feeling they still struggle with to this day.
Exactly 60 years after the independence of Rwanda and Burundi, the three-part documentary series Metissen van België tells the staggering history of more than 300 metis from the Belgian colonial period in Rwanda. The makers of the series do so through the life stories of three of them: Jaak, Paul and Jacqueline.
As illegitimate children of a white father and a black mother, they were taken away from their mother by the Belgian government and placed in Save’s boarding school in Rwanda. Just before independence, they had to leave there too and were rushed to Belgium.
There, uprooted and traumatized, they ended up in an adoptive family or an orphanage. These were events that marked the rest of their lives. Only in 2015 did they get access to their official files and were able to search for their roots.
During World War II, tens of thousands of Belgians collaborated with the Nazi regime. Their children look back and testify about the war period. What did their parents do, why did they collaborate, and how do their children feel about it now?
For the relatives of collaborators, the consequences of World War II were profound. They shared in the punishment and shame. Children often had an even harder time, as a normal family life was disrupted by facts they had absolutely nothing to do with. These were experiences they spent a lifetime reflecting on. The testimonies from the high-profile Canvas series Children of the Collaboration are now brought together in book form. Compiled by Piet Boncquet, the book is published in collaboration with Canvas. Historian Geert Clerbout, the final editor of the documentary series and the author of Publiek geheim (Public Secret), among others, writes the foreword. Piet Boncquet (1958) is a historian and archaeologist. He was a journalist with the newspapers Het Nieuwsblad and De Tijd for many years.